[techmike]

I have never really been into Bolt action rifles Here's what I want. I like .243 so that's decided. What brand should I go with. I want something fairly light weight that will shoot 1moa or better. I want a good rifle without spending mega bucks. Suggestions??

TIA,
Mike

[DeBee]

I decided I wanted a .243 for a walking varminter project I dreamed up. After much debate, I settled on the old 579 Sako.

I found one at a gunshow, made the deal, and took it home for a thourough inspection. I discovered it was unfired. It pained me to modify the rifle in any way and it sits in the safe still in the (non-original) box...

I found another 579 Pre Garcia Sako- buggered in everyway- someones truck gun. That's more like it! I immediatedly stripped it, rust blued the steel and soaked the stock in diluted spar varnish. I'm still working on it. I fitted a Niedner plate to the stock... I don't think I'm going to modify it too far from original- In my mind, it's a perfect walking varminter.

Wait, what was the question???

Oh. The rifle action should be scaled to the cartridge.

My top three recommendations for a .243:

1. Kimber M84
2. Winchester Classic Featherweight
3. Remington

[Sisco]

Shoot 1moa or better? A good rifle without spending mega bucks?
I think you just described a Savage.

[cratz2]

Well, I hate to toot my own horn or suggest something I might have for sale... but have you considered the Howa Ultralight? Very trim at 6lbs, smooth 3.5lb trigger, better stock than the Savages. And I know where you can get one for a very good price. :p

http://thehighroad.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=19359

[Crimper-D]

Old enough to have the tang safety and the semi butterknife bolt handle with an old Redfield 6X mounted = With handloads I can shoot 5/8" groups at 100yds til I run out of ammo:D
Loaded with sling and scope it weighs 7 lbs. If you can find one of these old sporters on an auction, Get It!
Mine is pure poison for groundsquirrels:evil:

[atek3]

someone is closing out Tikka 595's right now. Tikka just switched to the T3 action and are closing out the 595's. For a short action cartridge the 595 is a better action IMHO, and with their close out price I'd get one tomorrow if i had the cash.
with a tikka you get out of the box, a super accurate gun. Great trigger, detachable 5 rd. box mag, and integral scope rail.
Anyone on here know who the person doing the close out is?
it was seriously like 400 dollars for a tikka, which is absurdly cheap
however if you want a serious serious deal, buy a used savage

atek3

[harrydog]

A Tikka 595 for $400 ?
Please let me know where to find this deal!

[Matthew_Q]

Anyone have any experience with the Winchester Coyote?

I had thought one of those would be perfect for me (later on). I love laminate stocks, and the medium/heavy barrel on it. I would mostly shoot from the bench, so weight isn't a big issue.

Are the Winchester rifles worth a darn?

[techmike]

Anyone have any experience with the Winchester Coyote?

Glad you asked that...I wonder the same thing...I know some of the OLD Model 70's were supposed to be Amazing...but I don't know anything about the newer Winchester Line.

[DeBee]

My feelings on the Winchester:

The Pre 64 in .243 is somewhat of a waste because the action is the standard .30-06 length and heavy- A Pre 64 in the varmint weight barrel in .243 will probably be priced in the collectors realm.

As for the new ones, I'd seriously consider the Classic series of rifles over the pushfeeds. I think Winchester is just getting rid of it's surplus pushfeed actions that didn't sell years ago... You can pick up a pushfeed Winchester on the used market very inexpensively... If I had to go pushfeed, I'd reluctantly go Remington...

Currently, most factory rifles will require tweaking to perform optimally. Most shooters are buying a rifle, slapping a cheap scope on it in aluminum weaver mounts and factory ammo, hitting the range, and if it doesn't shoot 1 MOA on the first five shots like all the magazines say, the rifle is junk...

[cratz2]

I have a Winchester Model 70 Coyote in 243. It weighs 9.6 lbs without the scope, about half a pound heavier than the average weight according to Winchester. Withe the Zeiss scope, it weights 10.8 lbs. As with most rifles, the only complaint I had was with the trigger. I got it down to a managable pull and then had my local guy clean it up from there. Now it's great and about 2.8 lbs. Now that I think about it, this was the rifle where the safety was very difficult to work. The first few times I flipped it on, I thought it might break. Playing with it for an hour or so helped but it's still probably the hardest to work safety I have on any of my modern rifles. Don't know if there's some sort of adjustment or not. And some folks won't like that it's a push fed instead of control round fed and they probably have some validity with a big or dangerous game rifle, but until the day I get rushed by a coyote or have a crow attack after a missed shot, a push feed 243 is fine by me.

Out of the box, the rifle was glass bedded, properly floated and the first day out with it, we tried about 7 factory loads and a friend of mine shot a 0.6" group using Speer Nitrex with 100 Gr Grand Slam bullets. He's a big fan of Hornady bullets so he borrowed the rifle and worked up a load using the 75 Gr VMaxes that shoots just as well and I bought a few more boxes of the Nitrex in case I ever had occasion to use the rifle for something heavier than 50 lbs or so.

Here it is pictured with the older Swarovski 6x42 scope I usually mount on new rifles but it now wears my finest scope, a Zeiss 2.5-10 VM series. If I could only keep two centerfire rifles, this would be one of them. Can't think of much higher praise than that.

http://photos.imageevent.com/cratz2/guns//DCP_1558a.jpg

[atek3]

harrydog
http://www.thegunsource.com/rifles/tikka.htm

[harrydog]

Thanks!

[Nero Steptoe]

The prices on that link at The Gunsource are retail. Where are the closeout Tikkas?

[cratz2]

The prices on that link at The Gunsource are retail. Where are the closeout Tikkas?

The column that lists the 'retail' price isn't the MSRP... it's the price they sell the gun for. Trust me, $401 for a brand new Tikka is a closeout price. I've never seen a modern used Tikka for $400.

[cratz2]

The worst deal I ever missed on an auction, of something that I wanted, was a first year 243 original Winchester heavy barrel rifle. It had the original barrel which was stainless steel but blackened. Beautiful stock with rollover cheekpiece. It went for $630 at 2:00 in the morning and I missed it by about four minutes. I actually lost sleep over that. I have a bunch of pictures from the auction somewhere around here.

I mean, I like my Coyote, but I paid $560 for it. I'd gladly have paid $70 more for a first year Winchester. I'd have paid $300 more for it if I hadn't already bought the Coyote.

[DAL]

I saw a Savage at Wal-mart, w/some kind of cheap 3x9 scope, for $369. 'Twas mighty tempting at that price, but I have no real need for a .243 (but that doesn't mean I don't have a WANT for one). My plain ol' vanilla .30-06 can be loaded to do most anything I need. At least that's what I keep telling myself.

If it was in .308, though, that might just have been more temptation than I could've borne. No, I must be strong, must be strong, must be...
DAL